Weekly Prayers
Monday 11 March 2019.
Today we begin the first full week of Lent and continue our journey towards the great feast of Easter. In Luke’s Gospel yesterday we heard how Jesus was tempted by the Devil. The Devil offered Jesus power, wealth and glory. These are the things which can tempt us away from God and from what it good.
As we ask God for his help in resisting temptation, we should not forget to listen to him, to set aside some quiet time each day, walking to school, on the bus home or just before we go to sleep, to ask God to open our hearts and our minds to his will.
We think of this particularly now as we say together……………
Our Father……….
Tuesday 12 March 2019.
Today we thank God for his gift of life and offer everything we do to him.
Thanks be to God for creation and new life. Thanks be to God for time to grow and change. Thanks be to God ever old and ever new. Father thank you for a new day, for all its uncertainty and routine patterns. It is the place where you and I will work together.
Lord, I offer you my life today with its mixed motives and plans for the hours ahead. Take my heart and purify my motives, take my mind and clarify my plans. Make me a good and faithful servant of your Kingdom in all that happens. Amen.
Our Father……
Wednesday 13 March 2019.
Since last Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, you will have heard much of the traditional Lenten practices of Prayer, Almsgiving and Fasting. These three practices help us become the people God wants us to be and they help make our World a more loving, more just place.
The prophet Isaiah, reminds us of our duty to build The Kingdom of God:
‘I’ll tell you what it really means
to worship the Lord, remove the chains
of the prisoners who are chained
unjustly. Free those who are abused!
Share your food with everyone who is
hungry; share your home with the
poor and homeless. Give
clothes to those in need; don’t
turn away your relatives. Then
your light will shine like the
dawning Sun.
Our Father……….
Thursday 14 March 2019.
The celebration of Lent offers us a valuable opportunity to meditate on the relationship between faith, charity and believing in God and love, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and which guides us on the path of devotion to God and others. Therefore in this we ask more and more deeply to be with and like Jesus. We desire to celebrate the approaching mystery of our salvation with greater freedom and greater joy
Father in Heaven, Loving Mother,
I know that the tiny sacrifices I make this Lent
can never serve as a real penance in my life.
But help me to make my whole life one of following your Son.
I am filled with your love. Let your love shine out from within me
and guide my life in this sacred journey
toward the Easter joy you offer me
Our Father…
Friday 15 March 2019.
Today is the feast of St. Louise.
Louise de Marillac was born near Meux, France, on August 12, 1591. She married Antony LeGras, an official in the Queen’s service, in 1613. After Antony’s death in 1625, she met St. Vincent de Paul, who became her spiritual adviser. She devoted the rest of her life to working with him. She helped direct his Ladies of Charity in their work of caring for the sick, the poor, and the neglected. In 1633 she set up a training centre, of which she was Directress in her own home, for candidates seeking to help in her work. This was the beginning of the Daughters of Charity. By the time of her death in Paris on March 15, the Congregation had more than forty houses in France. Since then they have spread all over the world.
Her life spent in selfless service and support of the poor is an example to us all.
Let us pray that today we can be available for those in need of our support.
Our Father…
